Nacho Cheese Tortilla Chicken

Just when I thought I had run out of ideas for chicken, clear out of the wild blue this smacked me in the face.

One second my mind was completely blank and the next it was picturing chicken with all the charm of hot, cheesy nachos.

Making them is sooooo easy! There’s no dipping and dunking and dredging and dirtying up fifty million bowls. You set the chicken right in the pan, coat it with mayonnaise, the glue, then pat on crushed-up white corn tortilla chips. Rather than grinding them up into fine crumbs I crush them by hand into chunky, little pieces and mix them with a little bit of panko crumbs.

While the chicken is busy baking it’s way to crunchy and golden brown, you get to work on the sauce. Can I say easy again?

Cheddar and Monterey jack cheese is tossed with a little cornstarch, the thickener, and heated up with evaporated milk and the optional jalapenos for a zesty kick. That’s all. A little bit of whisking gets you to the silkiest, creamiest cheese sauce you will ever taste. A sauce you can use over and over again for making tried and true nachos and more.

All that’s left is to put two and two together. Ladle the hot, spicy sauce over the crunchy, succulent chicken and eat your little heart out.

Nachos in chicken form. Destined to be a favorite. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner.

Toss the cheese and cornstarch together in a medium bowl until the cheese is well coated then place it in a medium saucepan over medium heat.

Add 1 cup of the milk and whisk often until the cheese is completely melted and the sauce starts to thicken.

Add the jalapenos, if using. Turn heat down to low to keep warm until the chicken is done. If the sauce thickens too much, you can slowly stir in more of the milk to thin it out and turn the heat up to warm it through.

To serve, generously ladle the warm sauce over the chicken and top with a few sliced jalapenos.

Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice by Irene Pisano is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Delicious! I have used Reeni’s mayonnaise trick to “glue” on breading and it works like a charm with no mayonnaise flavor in the finished product! This idea for nacho chicken is awesome, Reeni ! I love cooking your out of the blue ideas! 🙂 Leaving out the Panko would make this a great gluten free breeding too.